Ella Hamlin, one among TCU‘s “Underfrogs,” the scholars who joined the ladies’s basketball group in January 2024 to avoid wasting its season, earned a full scholarship Tuesday.
A 12 months in the past, first-year coach Mark Campbell fielded open tryouts from the TCU scholar physique after a sequence of accidents and a scarcity of gamers compelled the Horned Frogs to forfeit two video games.
Four college students — who grew to become referred to as the “Underfrogs” — joined the team and helped TCU scrap its approach to the end line, as a 14-0 begin gave approach to a 21-12 end.
On Tuesday evening, Hamlin, the one member of that quartet to return this season, was awarded a full scholarship by Campbell.
“Ella, we’re simply tremendous grateful for you,” Campbell stated in a video of the locker room second posted to Instagram. “When there’s adversity, most individuals run away from it. The ‘Underfrogs,’ adversity hit, and also you guys determined to step up.”
Campbell selected a symbolic second, after a 90-81 win over UCF, virtually a 12 months after Hamlin joined the group for the primary time in final season’s Jan. 23 recreation in opposition to the Knights. The circumstances are completely different this season, with the 18-1 Frogs ranked No. 10 nationally.
An emotional Campbell thanked Hamlin for her function in serving to to get up to now, starting with joking about 25 cameras that had been following an admittedly nervous Hamlin and her three different volunteer teammates — Sarah Sylvester, Piper Davis and Mekhayia Moore — for shootaround earlier than their first recreation.
“I respect you, Ella, greater than you understand,” Campbell stated. “That recreation a 12 months in the past was the muse of our program. … Thank you for stepping as much as the plate and coming again and being an enormous a part of this group.”
The sophomore guard from Granbury, Texas, about 40 miles from Fort Worth, bypassed small-school scholarship presents to check nursing at TCU, then upended her life and sophistication schedule to hitch the group. This season, she is averaging 2.2 factors however is beloved amongst her teammates for her work ethic, perspective and vitality.
“There’s nobody else extra deserving of this than Ella,” TCU star Sedona Prince wrote on Instagram.
